This application is related to Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-344536 filed on Nov. 10, 2000 and No. 2001-330041 filed on Oct. 26, 2001, based on which this application claims priority under the Paris Convention and the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a remote-control signal receiver having at least a game execution function for executing video games based on game programs stored in storage media such as CD-ROM, DVD-ROM and semiconductor memory, and an image reproduction function for reproducing image information from storage media having recorded therein image information such as movie; information processing method for remote-control signal; storage medium having recorded therein information processing program for remote-control signal; information processing program; and remote-control device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, game programs of video games are generally distributed in a form being stored in optical disks such as CD-ROM or DVD-ROM since such disks can store larger volume of video games which are becoming more advanced and complicated, and can be manufactured at lower costs than semiconductor memories.
A video game machine reads out a game program from an optical disk, displays game scenes and characters on a monitor device, and emits under control effective sounds from speaker units. Movement of the characters or the like displayed on the monitor device can be controlled through a controller by the user.
The user thus can enjoy various types of video games such as RPG (role playing game), AVG (adventure game) and SLG (simulation game).
Video data stored in such CD-ROMs and DVD-ROMs for the video games are generally stored as being processed by compressive decoding using a high-performance compressive decoding technique such as MPEG2. The video game machine is thus provided with a MPEG decoder, by which the compressively decoded video data can be reproduced.
On the other hand, movie DVDs also contain video data as being processed by compressive decoding by such high-performance compressive decoding technique such as MPEG2. Thus the video game machine proposed by the present inventors can reproduce video scenes not only of video games but also of movies with the aid of the MPGE decoder.
Such video game machine proposed by the present inventors has already been distributed widely as an entertainment device in expectation of its versatility for the future since it can reproduce not only video games but other various digital contents such as music CDs and DVDs, and can send/receive digital contents through a communication network such as internet.
The conventional entertainment device has, however, been designed to reproduce music CDs or DVDS, which are optical disks having stored therein data other than video game programs, while being controlled by a controller connected through a cable to the main unit of such entertainment device.
Such controller has provided thereon a xe2x80x9c◯xe2x80x9d button with an embossed ◯ marking, a xe2x80x9cxc3x97xe2x80x9d button with an embossed xc3x97 marking, a xe2x80x9cxcex94xe2x80x9d button with an embossed xcex94 marking and a xe2x80x9cxe2x96xa1xe2x80x9d button with an embossed xe2x96xa1 marking for playing the game. In the reproduction of movie DVDs, the individual buttons are assigned with functions, for example, of menu selection, selection cancel/reproduction stop, menu display and title display, respectively, so that the user could control the reproduction operation on the main unit of the entertainment device by using such buttons. Such conventional entertainment device has thus been suffering from the problems below.
The controller is connected with the main unit of the entertainment device typically through a cable of approx. 2.5 m long. Such length of the cable was defined so as to allow the user to enjoy the video game as being properly distant from a monitor device, which is usually placed close to the entertainment device, and to put back the cable without problem.
While such length of the controller is convenient for enjoying the video game, a problem resides in that the controller is placed far from the user enjoying movies stored in a DVD on such entertainment device, since the movies are usually enjoyed at a position distant further than the length of such cable, which makes it difficult to operate the main unit of such entertainment device.
While the problem seems to be overcome by using a longer cable as long as 3 or 4 m, such longer cable will be inconvenient to put away and will make the user feel annoyed during the play of the video game.
In these days, reproducing devices such as video tape recorders and CD players are widely popularized, where most of which are operable by remote controllers, and every remote controller has similar key arrangement. Thus most of the recent users are supposed to be familiar with operations corresponded to such key arrangement of the remote controllers.
Such key arrangement of the remote controllers is, however, entirely different from that of the controller of the entertainment device designed for video games. Thus, for the case that the DVD for example is reproduced using the controller of the entertainment device, the user should encounter difficulty in operating the entertainment device since the user has to unwillingly struggle with key operation using the keys having an arrangement entirely different from that of the remote controller.
The present invention is completed to overcome the foregoing problems and an object thereof is to provide a remote-control signal receiver allowing the user to reproduce, for example, DVDs with a sense of handling a remote controller; information processing method for remote-control signal; storage medium having recorded therein information processing program for remote-control signal; information processing program; and remote-control device.
In the present invention, a main unit of an entertainment device is provided with a receiving unit to which operational commands are sent in a wireless manner via a remote control unit. The main unit of the entertainment device will execute action corresponded to the operational command received by the receiving unit. This allows the user to operate the main unit of the entertainment device or external devices connected to such main unit with a sense of using a remote controller.
Other and further objects and features of the present invention will become obvious upon understanding of the illustrative embodiment about to be described in connection with the accompanying drawings or will be indicated in the appended claims, and various advantages not referred to herein will occur to one skilled in the art upon employing of the invention in practice.